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April-June, 2011

Whatever the Problem, Use It for Awakening

by Revs. Robert and Mary Stoelting

Mary — Healing is always changed perception. I need a changed perception whenever I am not feeling the peace of my true Self. Changed perception comes from the Holy Spirit when I am willing to receive. “The Holy Spirit makes no distinction among dreams. He merely shines them away.” (T-6.V.4:4) The following are some examples:

I had a magnificent healing experience the day we were flying to San Francisco to participate in the ACIM Conference. Our flight started at 6 a.m. in Daytona Beach, Florida. While we were on the plane and ready for take off, the pilot announced that there was a delay because there was a backup in Atlanta due to weather. By the time we arrived in Atlanta, there was no way we could make our connecting flight to San Francisco.

My thoughts were, “Oh, no! This is not good. This will be very inconvenient for Rev. Ken Gorman, who volunteered to pick us up at the San Francisco airport.” (We knew he had three other people to pick up at different times that day.) I found myself tensing up and forgetting to relax and open my mind to Holy Spirit’s peace.

After rescheduling our flight, we headed to the gate of the next flight to San Francisco. At our new gate, we were greeted by a delightful employee from Delta Airlines who offered us two free round trip tickets to anywhere in the country if we applied for a Delta travel card. Delta flies out of Daytona Beach, so this would be very useful to us. We had plenty of time so we filled out the forms. We also called Ken and told him of our changed time of arrival, which worked out perfectly because others were delayed also.

This taught me not to think I know if something that happens is ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ It reminds me of Lesson 24: “I do not perceive my own best interests” and Lesson 34: “I could see peace instead of this.”

The next stage of the journey I received another lesson in remembering Lesson 42: “God is my strength. Vision is His gift.” Because we were on stand-by for the next flight, we were one of the last people to get on the plane. What was left were two middle seats in different parts of the plane. The man next to me was so broad shouldered he needed part of my seat to make room for his body. At first I thought this was ‘bad’ because I wanted my whole seat and didn’t want to have to lean over so much. I felt squished.

At first I forgot to choose peace and instead felt like I was the victim. After a few minutes of being very uncomfortable because I was resisting receiving the lesson, I remembered to step back and ask the Holy Spirit to help me see this differently. The first thing I heard from Holy Spirit was, “Use this time to see the Christ in the man next to you.” When I focused on the pure Light of Christ in him, everything changed. I relaxed and my mind softened. I felt myself immersed in the Love of Christ.

Instead of the discomfort I felt before, I felt peace. I felt joy. I saw that I was being blessed by this circumstance because I remembered to use this ‘problem’ for awakening to the truth. In the five hours of that flight I had nothing else to do but listen to Holy Spirit, Who showed me how there is a blessing to be found in every circumstance if I would simply take the time to remember that I do not perceive my own best interests. Instead of resisting, I can receive the lesson in Love that is there, waiting for me to be willing to see it differently.

Robert — Another ‘problem’ area that we have used for awakening is to observe the thoughts we have around thinking we know when the property in Kiel, Wisconsin, should sell and when we should move to the new property in Florida. We are finding that this is a beautiful opportunity to practice returning to the truth that our eternal Home is in the Mind of God and that we can’t leave our heavenly Home, even if we think we are somewhere else.

We have returned to Workbook Lessons 79 and 80 on pages 141-144 several times to be reminded that if we think we have a problem, we have forgotten that, “The problem of separation, which is really the only problem, has already been solved.” (W-pI.79.1:4)

We are using this circumstance to let go of taking the world too seriously, like the laughing Buddha, and learn the purifying lessons of the Holy Spirit:

“The Holy Spirit would undo all of this [belief in the past and future] now. Fear is not of the present, but only of the past and future, which do not exist. There is no fear in the present when each instant stands clear and separated from the past, without its shadow reaching out into the future. Each instant is a clean, untarnished birth, in which the Son of God emerges from the past into the present. And the present extends forever. It is so beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing but happiness is there. No darkness is remembered, and immortality and joy are now.” (T-13.I.8) 

If we look to the forms in the world for security and comfort, we will never find it. What is temporary cannot bring security. Without security we cannot be comfortable and at peace. Security is only in the changeless, eternal now.

© 2011, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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